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BASTAD, Sweden — Rafael Nadal returned to singles action with a 6-3, 6-4 victory on clay over Leo Borg, the 21-year-old son of Swedish great Bjorn Borg, in the first round of the Nordea Open in Bastad.

“For me it has been a huge honor to play against the son of one of the biggest legends in the history of our sport,” Nadal said about his 21-year-old opponent. “I think he played quite well, he has a future in front so I wish him all the very best.”

Nadal won the singles title in southern Sweden as a 19-year-old in 2005 and this is his first time back since then as he prepares for the Olympic tournament on clay at Roland Garros in Paris.

Nadal was playing his first singles match since he lost in the first round of the French Open to Alexander Zverev. He teamed up with Casper Ruud to win a first-round doubles match.

The 38-year-old Nadal skipped Wimbledon as he didn’t want to switch surface to grass and then back to clay and risk injury. He has been dealing with hip and abdominal injuries over the past 1 1/2 years.

Nadal will next face British No. 2 Cameron Norrie.

Rafael Nadal beats Leo Borg in Bastad as he continues to prepare for Olympic tournament
By
Associated Press

Nadal is adamant that Alcaraz is different to the Big Three and has an ‘aura’ of being a favourite for every tournament he now enters, even at the age of just 21.

He feels that is not the same as the Big Three era, because he was dominant on clay, but Roger Federer was the king of grass while the Swiss legend and Djokovic shared the hard courts.

‘No [one] player was the favourite before each tournament [in my era] and today I feel that he has that aura, that feeling,’ Nadal added. ‘That’s a big advantage because I think he feels that [if] he’s playing at his level [that] it’s hard for anyone to beat him.’

Alcaraz has remarkably already tasted major glory on all three surfaces with triumphs at the 2022 US Open, 2024 French Open and back-to-back Wimbledon titles in the last two years

But there is a new Spanish tennis superstar in town – Alcaraz – who just clinched an incredible Channel Slam after defeating Djokovic in the Wimbledon final for the second year in a row.

Nadal has lauded Alcaraz and said: ‘My impression is that we are talking about a player who is going to be one of the best in history. That is my feeling.

‘He is a player with great potential. Life can change quickly, that’s the truth. You never know what can happen in the future. But today if we have to predict what is happening in his career, we predict incredible things.